Peru high court upholds 6-year prison for Fujimori
LIMA (AFP) — Peru's Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a six-year prison sentence issued in December against former president Alberto Fujimori for ordering an illegal entry into a private home at the close of his rule (1990-2000).
Fujimori, 69, is currently on trial for alleged human rights abuses, including two death-squad killings of 25 people for which he could be jailed for 30 years.
The home invasion charge was tried when Fujimori was abroad -- he fled in 2000 to Japan. It involved the home of the wife of his former aide Vladimiro Montesinos, where videotapes incriminating Fujimori in wrongdoing were allegedly taken.
In the trial it was shown that Fujimori ordered a military officer to pose as a prosecutor to gain access to Trinidad Becerra's house in November 2000.
Besides the six-year prison sentence, the Supreme Court also upheld a 135,000-dollar fine against Fujimori for civil rights violations during the home invasion. He is also barred from holding public office for two years.
Tuesday's high court ruling was welcomed by prosectors in the death-squad killings case, because it "demolishes" Fujimori's lawyers' argument that, while in power, he had no authority over active-duty military officers.
"Fujimori gave an order to a lieutenant colonel to have him impersonate a prosecutor in an illegal operation aimed at recovering some videos implicating him in corruption," said prosecutor Avelino Guillen.
Prosecutors are trying to prove Fujimori was part of the chain of command that ordered atrocities during his rule, including two massacres blamed on an army hit squad known as the Colina Group.
The former president was extradited in September from Chile to Peru. His trial for his alleged role behind the Colina Group's murder of 15 people in 1991 and nine university students and a professor in 1992 began in December.
Fujimori has denied waging a "dirty war" against insurgents during his rule.
